Lubbock Power and Electric Boogaloo

Political freedom, generally speaking, means the right 'to be a participant in government,' or it means nothing -Hannah Arendt

We are gathered here today to honor a fallen utility…Wait! It's not dead yet!? Run for your lives!...

I began this post certain I would assail the evil empire of Light and Power. I would thrash it within an inch of its despotic life and lash it to the mast of the mighty ship of privatization.

We own this thing and it's not working. All of Lubbock goes dark and suddenly we have to boil our water. Again. The Only answer Has to be to sell it off to the highest bidder. We have this dog and it won't hunt. So we shoot it or sell it. Right?

How wrong I was.

With the foam and the squall, I failed to see that the mighty Milton Friedman Privateer was capsizing, soon to be swallowed piece-by-piece by the Maelstrom Meltdown of its own making. The Price of Privatization usually costs the crew their livelihoods if not their lives.

Lost like an albatross with a belly full of plastic, the Friedman is always bloated to bursting with debt as it's defying the mighty Adam Smith Poseidon. This harbinger of doom cries out in the spray, demanding tribute from the taxpayers for its folly, wringing our necks for our last breath - breaking our greenbacks.

As Milton succumbs to the Sirens of infantalism and the sophistry of the "consumer republic" (res publica - meaning "the things of the public" - those privately public things like "jumbo" shrimp), we writhe to break the grasp of the echo chamber and lash ourselves to masts of moral righteousness and social justice petitioning anyone for delivery.

This tempest in a teapot consumes the public sphere dancing on the ruins of the Culture War. I recoil at our bleak prospects (like jumping into the Big Wu) as we drift on the economic flotsam and paddle in a flotilla of tiny circles chasing the mirage of a beneficent privatized monopoly.

Your grid and your neighbors need you now more than ever, to help them take back The Power that keeps Lubbock running and prosperous (especially that brand-spankin new jumbotron thingy, I bet that needs a lot of juice).